1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of telephony, and more particularly to Internet Protocol (IP) based telephony.
2. Description of the Related Art
IP-based telephony refers to the technology to make telephone calls and send faxes over IP-based data networks with a suitable quality of service (QoS) and superior cost/benefit ratio. Some of the motivating factors for development of IP-based telephony are lower cost, consolidation of network infrastructure, and ability to support advanced applications. Lower costs may be achieved primarily by substantially reducing long distance telephone charges. Consolidation of network infrastructure may include an integrated voice/data network that allows more standardization and reduces total equipment needs. In addition, the number of failure points may be reduced, accounting systems may be consolidated, and operations may be combined, thereby increasing the overall operating efficiency. Advanced applications such as multimedia and multi-service applications may be more readily supported by IP-based telephony systems. These benefits are expected to drive substantial growth in the IP-based telephony market over the near future.
Demand for IP-based telephony, particularly in the business market, has included a demand for hosted solutions. In hosted IP-telephony, a solution provider may operate one or more servers connected to the Internet that host a telephony application to which a client connects a number of terminals equipped to exchange IP packets. Common client terminals include an IP-telephone or a computer configured to operate as an IP-telephony client. Hosted IP-telephony solutions may be expected to provide an alternative to premise-based solutions such as a private branch exchange (PBX), IP-based private branch exchange (IPBX), key systems, etc. In order to compete with such premise based solutions, it may be desirable to provide a number of features and functions commonly seen in premise based solutions. One such feature/function is desktop voice paging which utilizes the desktop business telephone set and its built-in speaker-phone as a paging terminal. Unfortunately, support for voice paging is not readily available in terminal-to-terminal IP-based telephony systems.
Accordingly, systems and methods for providing paging functionality within the context of IP-telephony systems is desired.